Pink Eye!
by Steve Acaster · 09/24/2008 (4:22 pm) · 3 comments
There's a Cartman quote somewhere in that title...
I figured that the whites of my eyes turned bloodshot like a Christopher Lee movie from the swinging sixties was a clear hint I was spending far too much time working ... or at least what passes for working. Staring at a plasma screen anyhow. I did read something ages ago that plasma screens lower the rate your eyes blink compared to old tv/monitors.
So, eyedrops, lowering the contrast on my monitor, and a general break have been in order. The weather in Yorkshire has been kack so venturing outside was somewhat off putting. So that meant milling about the house feeling slightly under-occupied which leads to Ravenswood Zinfandel or some Kiwi Sauvignon Blanc. Or pale ale. But it was also a good time to get some planning done.
Also had a walking tour of Berlin for a weekend (mate's stag party), which was nice. Will have to return at a later date with a list of things to see instead of a list of bars to hit. Still saw a fair bit of the city though and have the blisters to prove it.
When my eyes turned white again I started testing on finalizing a game level. Planned my road and rail network and built it from my previously made prefabs in Blender. Exported it as a single (HUGE) DTS model for a test.
That all seemed to work okay, though I'll obviously have to section it down into areas (individual models) so the whole thing doesn't constantly get drawn at once in-game, which would be a tad wasteful in resources and meaning LODing would be useless.
Then it was a case of planning out building types and game events. I'd like to prevent things from being utterly linear giving the player a little more freedom to explore, giving myself more work to do. Currently I've got 1.5km square of available gameplay area.
Next up us to add a bit of height (hills) to the transportation network, as it's currently all a bit flat and in desperate need of some undulation. Then conform the terrain to the height of the roads.
After that it's time to work out my facade buildings (DTS), followed by enterable buildings (DIF), then landscape props. After that it's triggers and gameplay. And eventually I might get round to my idea of baked shadow decals (fake lightmaps for DTS).
It's all just the same as buying flatpack furniture: You've got all the bits, and now it's a titanic struggle to assemble it into something that you can put a cup of tea on.
YorkshireRifles.blogspot.com
I figured that the whites of my eyes turned bloodshot like a Christopher Lee movie from the swinging sixties was a clear hint I was spending far too much time working ... or at least what passes for working. Staring at a plasma screen anyhow. I did read something ages ago that plasma screens lower the rate your eyes blink compared to old tv/monitors.
So, eyedrops, lowering the contrast on my monitor, and a general break have been in order. The weather in Yorkshire has been kack so venturing outside was somewhat off putting. So that meant milling about the house feeling slightly under-occupied which leads to Ravenswood Zinfandel or some Kiwi Sauvignon Blanc. Or pale ale. But it was also a good time to get some planning done.
Also had a walking tour of Berlin for a weekend (mate's stag party), which was nice. Will have to return at a later date with a list of things to see instead of a list of bars to hit. Still saw a fair bit of the city though and have the blisters to prove it.
When my eyes turned white again I started testing on finalizing a game level. Planned my road and rail network and built it from my previously made prefabs in Blender. Exported it as a single (HUGE) DTS model for a test.
That all seemed to work okay, though I'll obviously have to section it down into areas (individual models) so the whole thing doesn't constantly get drawn at once in-game, which would be a tad wasteful in resources and meaning LODing would be useless.
Then it was a case of planning out building types and game events. I'd like to prevent things from being utterly linear giving the player a little more freedom to explore, giving myself more work to do. Currently I've got 1.5km square of available gameplay area.
Next up us to add a bit of height (hills) to the transportation network, as it's currently all a bit flat and in desperate need of some undulation. Then conform the terrain to the height of the roads.
After that it's time to work out my facade buildings (DTS), followed by enterable buildings (DIF), then landscape props. After that it's triggers and gameplay. And eventually I might get round to my idea of baked shadow decals (fake lightmaps for DTS).
It's all just the same as buying flatpack furniture: You've got all the bits, and now it's a titanic struggle to assemble it into something that you can put a cup of tea on.
YorkshireRifles.blogspot.com
About the author
One Bloke ... In His Bedroom ... Making Indie Games ...
#2
Just trying to design a working urban environment based around a transport network, and have already come up with a few problems - all of them to do with rendering DTS roads.
Obviously on mass the whole thing is a huge model (1.5km square) but I found that sectioning it down into smaller areas still has problems, all to do with rendering and fog distance. When the max visible fog distance hits the sectioned model, the whole lot vanishes. This causes sections of road to pop in and out of view, which looks baaaaaad.
So the only way around that is to have quite small areas, like the prefab sections I built the whole thing with in Blender. But that means having to stick in and align lots and lots of objects, and then I've still got to get round to faking shadow map decals for them. And I don't think polysoup is going to work on so many things so clse together.
Though I could just go back to DIFs....
Now I've noticed that DIFs cull steadily (using low fog and the wireframe DIF option in the TGEA world editor) so even though lots of DIFs have lower performance than lots of collisioned DTS, I can probably scrape that performance back with the fog culling. And they come ready done with collision and lightmaps.
Hmmmm..... I'll consider all of this some more whilst watching Hull City thrash Arsenal (yeah, right!) at English soccer. Rare steak and beers helps the congnitive processes.
:D
09/27/2008 (8:33 am)
Lol, no, not a racing game.Just trying to design a working urban environment based around a transport network, and have already come up with a few problems - all of them to do with rendering DTS roads.
Obviously on mass the whole thing is a huge model (1.5km square) but I found that sectioning it down into smaller areas still has problems, all to do with rendering and fog distance. When the max visible fog distance hits the sectioned model, the whole lot vanishes. This causes sections of road to pop in and out of view, which looks baaaaaad.
So the only way around that is to have quite small areas, like the prefab sections I built the whole thing with in Blender. But that means having to stick in and align lots and lots of objects, and then I've still got to get round to faking shadow map decals for them. And I don't think polysoup is going to work on so many things so clse together.
Though I could just go back to DIFs....
Now I've noticed that DIFs cull steadily (using low fog and the wireframe DIF option in the TGEA world editor) so even though lots of DIFs have lower performance than lots of collisioned DTS, I can probably scrape that performance back with the fog culling. And they come ready done with collision and lightmaps.
Hmmmm..... I'll consider all of this some more whilst watching Hull City thrash Arsenal (yeah, right!) at English soccer. Rare steak and beers helps the congnitive processes.
:D
#3
And I think building a full DIF format prototype is the way forward.
:D
09/27/2008 (4:32 pm)
Arsenal 1 Hull 2! First victory in 94 years!And I think building a full DIF format prototype is the way forward.
:D
Torque Owner Kevin James